(Crowds line marathon route, somewhere else.) Though you may not have noticed, today was the day of Toronto’s second fall marathon, the Toronto Marathon. As one might expect, Yonge Street and University Avenue were lined with spectators, and residents of neighbourhoods the marathon went through, such as Forest Hill and Rosedale, were outside with handmadecontinue reading
Current Events Archives
Me! Me! It’s all about me!
Summary: Blowhard hack indirectly kills decent kid; hack wonders if he should feel conflicted about this, but settles for navel-gazing. Full story here. Hitchens seems to sense that the appropriate response involves a) some level of genuine humility, as opposed to a pose du jour that involves faking humility, and b) a true focus oncontinue reading
Bland still works
Election 2007: It seems like a lot of trouble to go to to have what is in effect a cabinet shuffle, doesn’t it? Some high, or low, lights: – The Tory campaign couldn’t change the channel, as we all know. One of the big problems, it seems, is that they didn’t have anything to changecontinue reading
Happy (derivative) Thanksgiving
As a first-generation American Canadian, nothing makes me prouder than seeing Canadians embrace an American holiday in their own unique way. (What specifically Canadian tweaks have been made to the holiday here, besides the October date, is still unclear to me. But I’m sure that there are some extremely important, if for all practical purposescontinue reading
Flight delays redux
Here’s Patrick Smith’s most recent take on all this. It seems very reasonable to me.
Never fear — PR is here!
So it seems Pearson airport is firing its nurses — who handle 700+ patients per month, meeting them at or on the plane if necessary — and turning their jobs over to the Peel Fire Department and local ambulances (i.e., if there’s an emergency at the airport they’ll just call 911). But [spokesperson for thecontinue reading
The brave bloggers of Burma
In 1989, I was glued to the television for weeks watching the pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square make their peaceful case for democracy. The entire world could watch because of the footage that was broadcast. In Burma, foreign journalists are banned. In 1988 information about the junta’s crackdown was limited, and verbal. But thanks tocontinue reading
Fight the Power
Would-be car buyers launch a class action suit claiming sticker prices on Canadian cars are illegal. One analyst points out that when the C$ was at US$0.65 — not so very long ago — prices here were actually lower and no one was complaining. What the plaintiffs ignore is that Canada is a different countrycontinue reading
Dollar daze part 2: don’t blame the bookseller
More from the frontlines of C$ surge, aka the US$ collapse: – I have to question the Star’s dollar headline on its front page today (check your local Star copy or box as it does not appear online). The story is fine, but it’s topped by the ubiquitous pic of a loonie and, in somethingcontinue reading
Dollar daze*
Woo-hoo! Parity at last! Where were you in 1976? Etc. Except: we live in Ontario consumer prices aren’t budging plus, don’t know if you’d noticed, but housing and food prices, which represent a sizeable part of the average household budget, are rising. Core inflation is actually a bit softer — you know, the type that doesn’t includecontinue reading